May emerged from the hallway back to the seminar room. She was fortified with confidence bestowed on her by her friends. There was no way that Penwell would get to her, she had her own version of Mena’s Heart Barrier to protect her.

Her confidence quickly changed to confusion when she realized that all the other girls were gone. Penwell was the sole person standing there, casting a stern gaze of steel towards May. May faltered before puffing out her cheeks and moving so fast on her magi-chair that she could bum rush Penwell.

“Well, have you returned?” Penwell asked, using her bony arms to grab ahold of her dandelion wine.

May raised her deep voice boisterously towards the curmudgeon writer. “I am ready to face my own scandalous fantasy.”

Penwell’s eyebrow arched, and she placed her spindly fingers together. “Excellent,” she said with a long smile. “I thought you weren’t coming back. Several of the other girls couldn’t take it and dropped out.”

“Whuh?” May gasped, but Penwell looked like she expected that response.

The middle-aged writer stepped in front of the mental note and smirked. She held her hand to the page and it rippled. “The reason I did this exercise is because it shows your ability to stand naked before the world.”

As Penwell touched the mental note, several ink black eyes formed on the page and turned to May. “There will be many prying eyes on your romance, Maylene. And some will not be so kind to you. Some will be quite judgmental.”

The inky eyes vanished and Penwell outstretched her bird-like arms. “The fact that you came back after such a harsh perception from your peers means…You have passed today’s test.”

May was so shocked by Penwell’s response that she did a triple pirouette in her floating magi-char, nearly zooming around the room in amazement.

Penwell put her hands on her hips and walked over to May, who had finally settled down in her magi-chair. She patted the chairbound young girl on the head. “I am proud of you, Maylene. But remember, it only gets tougher from here on out.”

May bowed her head. “Thank you, Ms. Penwell,” she said, before the old woman urged her with a shoo of her hands.

“Now go,” Penwell said, looking into her empty canteen. “I’m out of the good stuff.”

May’s round face smiled as she departed from the seminar room. But right before she went, she turned to look if Penwell was still there. She wasn’t, so May gave a thumbs up to the black window looming above her. She could only hope that Mena, Janus and Nick could make it out of there without being caught.

***

When May exited the building safe and sound, Mena knew it was their turn to get out…but how? The sewers were now impassible after the skirmish with Crocko. She inquired the same question with her allies.

“I know,” Janus remarked, head leaning on her hands as her friends turned towards her. “We use a Ghost Coat.”

“Ghost Coat?” Mena asked, questions forming in her eyes. “What’s a Ghost Coat?”

Janus rose from her seat and twinkled her fingers while making woo sounds, “Only the best coat ever. Its possessed by a small ghostie and it turns anyone who dons it into a spooky ghooooost. They become transparent and can pass through walls and buildings.

“That’d be great,” Mena pranced around happily. “Do you have one?”

Suddenly Janus’ dreamy expression turned to embarrassment. “I had one but it kinda…gave up the ghost.”

The sheer magnitude of the lame pun and disappointment knocked Mena off her feet and when she got back up, she glared at Janus who giggled.

“Now now ladies,” Nick said, standing between Mena and Janus, the former who was ready to kill Janus… again. “We need to think about this problem with a… clear mind.”

“Oh really?” Mena asked, cynically crossing her arms. “What’s your plan?”

Nick chuckled and put his arms around Mena and Janus. “The Signature Clearmind Strategy Number One: Simply go ahead and do it and hope for the best. Works with the ladies and sneaking out of romance novel headquarters.”

Mena and Janus looked at each other helplessly.

“Why not?” said Janus.

***

The trio tip-toed back downstairs, into the pale-grey corridor. “If I do remember correctly,” Nick said, quietly peering behind a wall. “There was a side exit somewhere at the end of one of these halls. It’s a bit hard remembering though since all these doors look the same.”

Fortunately, the coast was clear, and Nick gave the two girls an affirmative gesture. They slipped quickly down the hall, making minimal noise until they came to a fork between two hallways and a janitor’s garbage can.

“Which way do we go?” Mena asked scratching her head, but she quickly fell silent. There were footsteps and singing coming down the hallway. “Drat rats,” Mena muttered, hiding behind the rolling garbage can. “If they find us, our goose is cooked.”

Nick observed the garbage can, which read, “Void-a-Rama” on the front.

“I have an idea, alley-oop,” he said, and tipped Janus over headfirst into the garbage can. She screamed but her voice became a quiet echo as soon as her laced boots disappeared into the garbage

“As I thought,” Nick said, and he smirked and grabbed the can. “Care to join me?”

Mena crossed her arms and pouted. “Not if you’re going to do to me what you did to Janus?”

Nick chortled. “I had to. She had the most expendable fashion. Goths are so last-never.”

“I heard that,” Janus called up from the can, but as the footsteps drew closer. Mena and Nick had no choice but to dive it.

As Mena leaped in, she expected to land with a thud on top of Janus, but much to her surprise, she found herself floating in a whole new dimension. It resembled space itself with speckled blue dots everywhere. In every direction she looked, there were tin cans, crumbled up pieces of paper, and half eaten bits of food. Janus floated beside Mena, a frown and crossed arms signaled that she wasn’t a happy camper. Nick slowly floated down beside them. “How do you like this magical garbage void?”

“A garbage void?” Mena and Janus both exclaimed.

Nick extended his hands to encompass the whole magical space. “Thanks to new dream technology we’ve learned how to store garbage in pockets of janitorial dream dimensions.”

“Wowie zowie,” Mena exclaimed, “That’s awesome,”—her eyes grew wider, and she pressed her finger to her lip. “But why don’t you store more garbage in here than the sewer?”

Nick elbowed her, “Do you really want garbage stinking up everybody’s dreams? The Clearmind society wouldn’t stand for it. We already have enough filthy minds as it is.”

Before Mena could answer, they heard humming and felt the dimension shift. There was loud humming sounds echoing through the dimension from the high pitched, wavery voice of the janitor.

“Hopefully, if we’re lucky,” Nick said, “This janitor will take us outside when he goes to dump the trash…Owch...my perm.”

A sundial wristband dropped down, plonking Nick on my head, and causing Janus to giggle. “Oh nuts,” the janitor said from above. “I dropped my watch in the garbage again.”

Without warning, a giant hand descended upon everyone, reaching for the missing watch. The index, middle ring finger and thumb all groped around, causing everyone to writhe away, narrowly avoiding the janitor’s grasp. “Consarnit,” the janitor grumbled. “I lost it deep in there this time.”

As the janitor reached further and further, Janus smiled, “Here you go,” she said sweetly and handed the janitor the watch.

Everyone gasped in terror at Janus’ bold move, but the hand picked up the watch with a “thank you” and it rose back out.

Much to their surprise, the janitor started rolling the garbage can again. Mena and Nick both glared at Janus for endangering them, but she smiled and buoyantly floated off. “Hey, it got him to go away, didn’t it?”

The sound of a door clicked, and the garbage void was shaken as it tumbled up and down. “I…THINK…HE’S…GOING…DOWN…THE…STAIRS…” Nick said, as Mena’s stomach bounced, making her dizzy. At last, it stopped, and two voices could be heard.

“Hey Barty,” another man’s voice inquired of the janitor. “Did you leave the side door open again?”

Barty’s squeaky voice responded back. “Of course, I do. It’s so I don’t lock myself out. No one would ever think about going through there.”

“Very well,” the other man responded to the janitor. “Let’s dump this trash and get back to the breakroom. I hear they’re making eye-of-newt-spice coffee again.”

“Oh boy,” Barty responded and suddenly, everyone inside the void felt it turn upside down as they fell into dumpster.

Once the two janitors were gone, Mena, Janus and Nick, covered in debris stuck their heads out of the trash. “I’m so mad,” Mena exclaimed, her face turning bright red and pouting. She pulled a banana off her head

“Why?” Nick asked. “Because we smell like crud?”

“No,” Mena said before uttering a few mild, made-up swears beneath her breath. “We could’ve gone through the side door and avoided that corny musical number.”

***

Walking around to the front of Love Ink, they were greeted by May who went to hug them, but suddenly her circular nose wrinkled, and she floated back in magi-chair. “Why do you guys smell like raw sewage and men’s clothing stores?”

“Because,” Mena said, trying to make sense of everything. “We spent most of the day in sewers and garbage piles and then Nick doused us in men’s cologne to cover it up.”

“I’d prefer the raw sewage,” Janus responded with a wry expression.

“Never mind that,” May responded. “Can we see the note now?”

Mena whipped out the X/O note and the four looked over it. Mena read it aloud,

“The only thing thicker than a mixed metaphor is a veil of shadows, but if you illuminate your minds to the dream inside room R-Seven, you will pass through it and find the light of truth. X/O”

“Miserable magicaps,” Mena moaned twirling both her fingers around her ears. “The only thing heavier than that cryptic message is the fact that we’re going to be working at the hotel to the crack of dawn.”

The four headed back to the Newt T. Hotel to puzzle their minds over the mystery that lay before them. Only two days of May’s seminar remained, and that didn’t give them much time to uncover the mystery, especially when Mena and Janus would be cooking and cleaning all night instead.